SAN BRUNO, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--The City of San Bruno launched an online petition drive last week that
seeks the public’s participation in calling on the California Public
Utilities Commission to hold Pacific Gas & Electric Company and its
shareholders accountable for the fatal Sept. 9, 2010 pipeline explosion
in San Bruno and to demand that a penalty levied against PG&E is
invested in a safety improvement program to prevent future tragedies in
other California communities.

More than three years after the explosion, the CPUC’s administrative law
judges are expected to issue their recommended penalty in the coming
weeks, after which the CPUC’s five-member commission will ultimately
determine how much PG&E will be forced to pay for the fatal explosion
that federal and state investigators determined was entirely preventable
and did not have to happen.

San Bruno’s petition – which already has more than 6,900 signatures – is
available at: www.gaspipelinesafety.org,
a website established by the City of San Bruno to petition the CPUC
through the free, online petition platform Change.org. City officials
said they started the website and petition after members of the public
asked how they could voice support for a penalty and fine to force PG&E
shareholders to fund repairs to its aging and deadly pipeline
infrastructure.

Federal investigators found that PG&E’s years of neglected safety
repairs resulted in the 2010 explosion that killed eight, injured 66 and
destroyed scores of homes in San Bruno. Now, the City of San Carlos is
facing a similar problem with PG&E over similar faulty data for a gas
pipeline. PG&E estimates that it doesn’t know the safety status of
nearly 20 percent of its thousands of miles of gas pipelines in
California.

“The public is outraged by PG&E’s decades of neglect and misallocation
of resources that resulted in eight people losing their lives,” said San
Bruno Mayor Jim Ruane. “Citizens and cities throughout California are at
the same risk of what happened in San Bruno. Now is the time to take
action and this petition gives the public that ability.”

“Citizens throughout California often ask me and other city leaders what
they can do to support San Bruno and change our broken public utility
system,” Ruane said. “We started this online petition to provide the
public an outlet for those concerns, and we encourage everyone to join
myself and the members of the San Bruno City Council in signing to
support a safe gas pipeline system here and in communities everywhere.”

The petition calls on the CPUC to levy the recommended $2.45 Billion
penalty and fine against PG&E shareholders – not ratepayers - for the
San Bruno explosion, requiring that shareholders invest in needed
repairs to guarantee the safety of PG&E’s aging pipeline infrastructure.

In addition, the petition to the CPUC’s Executive Director asks the CPUC
to assign an Independent Monitor to serve as a statewide safety
watchdog. The Independent Monitor would protect public safety at the
risk of future negligence by PG&E and weak oversight by the politically
appointed CPUC commissioners with close ties to utilities.

Last, the petition implores the CPUC to change the way regulators do
business and end regulators’ cozy relationships and the conflicts of
interest with utility companies. Federal investigators identified these
troubling relationships as contributing factors to the disaster in San
Bruno.

Every time a member of the public signs the petition, an e-mail will be
automatically sent to CPUC Executive Director Paul Clanon, Gov. Jerry
Brown and PG&E CEO Tony Earley – sending a direct message that the
public is watching and holding them accountable.

“Members of the public, especially those who have been personally
affected by PG&E’s gross negligence here and across the state, are
invested in this process, and they are paying attention,” Ruane said.
“We hope this petition sends the message to not only the CPUC but also
to the Governor of California and to the CEO of PG&E that the public is
concerned, and that we are watching to make sure public safety is a
priority.”

City officials say the public outreach campaign and petition drive at
gaspipelinesafety.org is also designed to inform the public about why
the ongoing penalty process against PG&E is, more than three years after
the explosion, still relevant and important to the safety of communities
statewide. Federal investigators determined the explosion to be result
of faulty pipeline construction, bad record-keeping and decades of
neglected pipeline safety improvements that continue to threaten the
safety of communities across California.

PG&E executives recently admitted to serious record-keeping errors and
were sanctioned by the CPUC for failing to inform regulators of these
problems on a pipeline in San Carlos, Calif. – problems a PG&E engineer
likened to “another San Bruno situation” in an internal e-mail to
company officials.

It is projected that PG&E will need to spend nearly $10 billion in the
coming years to test and replace its gas lines because PG&E historically
failed to track and maintain those lines. City officials say the
proposed $2.45 billion penalty and fine is important and necessary
because PG&E will be forced to spend it on these very improvements.

More importantly, the penalty is structured such that shareholders –not
ratepayers-- will be forced to cover these costs, saving
ratepayers from shouldering about 20 percent of PG&E’s total capital
needs.

“This decision before the CPUC has lasting implications about the safety
of our aging pipeline infrastructure,” Ruane said. “We implore members
of the public to learn more and support our drive to change a flawed
system so that what happened in San Bruno is never permitted to happen
again, anywhere.”